Reilly's Survivor Story
Name as been changed to protect the victim
Reilly's life took a turn for the worst after her nine year marriage ended. Shut out from her family and losing custody of her children, she was grasping for some sort of stability. She stayed temporarily at low budget hotels and with friends, wherever she could lay her head. At one of the hotels, she met a man who invited her to go to another city with him and meet a "friend." Hopeful this man would take care of her, she trusted him.
She was 32 and was naive to trafficking, so she went.
This man’s "friend" began taking pictures of her, and without her knowledge, put them online to traffick her. At this point, she was so devastated from losing her kids she didn't care anymore, and let it happen. The trafficker was extremely violent, but after a few years, she got away. She met someone else who she thought cared about her, but ended up being another trafficker acting as her "boyfriend."
Reilly was impacted when a sting operation went down, and she met a kind lady who told her about The WellHouse. At that time, she wasn't ready to go. "The next two years were the darkest, lowest, and most hopeless time in my life. BUT GOD!" said Reilly.
She finally snuck away and remembering The WellHouse, made the call. Reilly ran from her trafficker and hitchhiked to a different state until The WellHouse had an open room. The WellHouse provided the bus ticket to get her to the campus, and she's since been safe.
“This is my family, this is where I belong! I have never experienced grace and love like I have here.”
Reilly is now healing from her trauma and learning she is accepted and loved. "This is my family, this is where I belong!! I have never experienced grace and love like I have here," she said. "I am closer to God, reunited with my family, and learning to love myself again."
Reilly is enrolled in college online and is working toward a better future ahead.